Friday, November 29, 2002

Pretty Lights Are Everywhere, Shining Night & Day

"...Christmas can't be very far away." <---You know what that is? That's right, it's a line from one of my favorite of Amy Grant's Christmas songs! And you know what that means? That means the Christmas season is upon us! Eeeeeee! How spiffy is that? Why, that's positively spiffilicious! The only thing I don't like about this season is that some people seem to think it's hunting season. And to that, I say "grrr." Grrrrrrrr, I tell you! *Glares and kicks at the freaking hunters while holding deer protectively*.

*Takes a few deep breaths* AHEM. As I'm sure you can tell, I'm just a tad perturbed about all this "hunting" business. My cousin, Lindsay, seems to have chosen one of those... those hunter bois as her boyfriend, and I didn't take kindly to the fact that she freely discussed the fact that this hunter boi was out hunting, all through Thanksgiving dinner. *Sigh* Other than the talk of how Lindsay is dating this dude, and how most of my family members ate turkey, I think Thanksgiving was lovely. As usual, my brother Zachary and I had Thanksgiving lunch with my dad's family, and dinner with my mom's. At Grandma Z.'s, Zach, Lindsay and Jennifer had fun listening to the CDs of prank calls Zach has made, and then they decided to prank Lindsay's and Jen's boyfriends. At Grandma Shoup's, I read a prayer for the turkeys that Mom printed out, and Zach & Mike thought it would be hilarious to eat turkey and laugh during the prayer. *Rolls eyes* No respect, I tell ya.



Good Lord, I had the worst flu this past week. I figured I was going to have to go to the hospital. I just couldn't stop puking, so I thought I must be getting dehydrated, like I was last winter when I had to go to the hospital. Eventually, though, I was able to keep some Coke and clear Gatoraide down, and now I'm okay. *Gives a thumbs up* Apparently, everybody's got this flu because I went to theatre practice on Wednesday to find that only five of us attended! Not even Lori, the teacher, showed up, so we had some guy named Mike who acted exactly like Lori, so it was like she wasn't even gone.

Dood. Our show opens December 13th, in two freaking weeks! I hope people start showing up to class before then so everyone can have their parts down. Gaaaaah, only about seven of us have our lines memorized so far! *Goes to use inhaler* I'm okay. We put up the new Christmas tree that Dad ordered from QVC yesterday morning. It's pre-lit and pretty. I would go, sit in the family room and gaze at it, but there's a mouse or something in the attic, and you can really hear it walking around in the family room, so... yeah. I think I'll just stay here. *Hugs for all*

--Holly :-D

Thursday, November 21, 2002

Cops Out Front, Snipers in the Bushes

Zach woke me up for school this morning at 8:00, and I was pretty dang tired, and didn't really want to get out of bed. But I ate my peanut butter toast nevertheless, and got ready to go to school. I walked out to the living room and started putting my shoes on, and Zach opened the drapes. As soon as he did, we saw a couple of cop cars in front of our house, and the cops were holding huge rifles, and blocking off the road. Zach went out to ask them what the heck was going on, and they said, "There's a situation behind your house; stay inside." So... we did, while Zach decided to open all the shades in the family room so he could see what was going on back there.

Zach walked out of the room with the phone so he could call my grandparents, who also live in this neighborhood, but I stayed in the family room. I heard a knock, and saw a guy all decked out in army garb with a big-arse rifle, knocking on my sliding glass door. I didn't think I should answer the door to this dude, so Zach went out front and asked the cops if we should open the door to this army guy. They informed us that he was a cop too, so we opened the back door, and the army cop was like, "Hey, there's a man with a gun right around here, so don't be getting up in the windows, and stay inside." We began shutting the blinds as we spotted a sniper hiding between the bushes in the back yard.

At this point, I was seriously freaked out, and Zach was calling my dad at work, my mom at her house, and our other grandparents and friends. We went down the basement so we wouldn't get shot through the windows or anything, but nothing really happened, so we came back upstairs after a while. We saw a few more snipers hiding in our next-door-neighbor's stairwell when we peeked out the window. Soon, the guy who lives across the street from us was cleaning out his camper, and the next-door-neighbors were outside, talking to the cops, so we settled down a bit. After about 3 hours, the snipers, army dudes and policemen all went back to their cars and left. We just saw on the news that the situation had been about this guy who was threatening his wife with a gun, but the cops arrested him, so I suppose everything is okay now. So... I guess I have a pretty valid excuse for not going to school today. "The cops wouldn't let me leave my house." *Nods* Okay, later.

--Holly :-O

Wednesday, November 20, 2002

ENFP Spells Holly

Ew. I don't feel good today. My stomach hurts, I seem to have a bit of a cold and there's a spider on the floor in the kitchen, so I can't get any Pepto Bismol from there. *Cries* Dude, Mike got a job. Yes, my step-dad, Mike. He got a job. A real one! And he actually gets a pay check and such. *Shakes head in wonder* I can't believe it. Mike is now Mr. AT&T, so he goes around to people's houses and tries his darndest to sell them on AT&T. Yesterday was his first day on the job. At one house, an old woman answered her door, informed him that he "Sure looks good," and promptly informed him that she didn't like AT&T, then slammed the door on him. I'd say it's going well. *Nods happily and gives a thumbs up*

I have a class called Career Exploration where we take surveys and basically waste an hour of everyone's day. A couple weeks ago, we took a survey called the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. The test informed me that I belong to a group of folks called "ENFP", which means that I am "Extroverted, Intuitive, Feeling and Perceiving." This is what that says about me: "Warmly enthusiastic and imaginative. See life as full of possibilities. Make connections between events and information very quickly, and confidently proceed based on the patterns they see. Want a lot of affirmation from others, and readily give appreciation and support. Spontaneous and flexible, often rely on their ability to improvise and their verbal fluency." Then it proceeded to give me a list of jobs that I'd be good at. I like the idea of Playwright or Screenwriter. I could be like Colin Hanks in Orange County. Anyway, so my new major is Creative Writing.



I muchly enjoy Theatre Practice. The other day, I realized that I sound a lot like the Band Camp Girl from American Pie when I talk about it. I'm all, "And this one time, at theatre practice, Kyle was doing his monolouge, and he kept saying, 'No, no, no, DAMMIT!' and it was so funny!" Yeah... I'm a nerd. But then there was this one time, at theatre practice last week, and Zach went with me. I did my monologue for an hour and everyone says I need to act more bitter and angry, so I've been observing divorcees. 'Tis amazing. I went to my cousin Allison's play a couple weeks ago, and their play (Charlotte's Web) makes ours (The Elvis Monologues) look like Cruel Intentions and their look like Sesame Street. So... yeah. I'm sorry, but ours is better. *Sticks tongue out at them*

Mike has recently developed the idea that I'm going to convert from Christianity to Paganism since I'm so into Harry Potter. He heard this dude on the radio say that a girl killed herself because she read Harry Potter, and then she looked up Divination on the web, and apparently, her horoscope or something told her she should kill herself. I couldn't even begin to tell him what was wrong with that. He told my mom, "Wendy, I'm worried that Holly's going to do something like that!" Yeah, thanks for giving me so much credit, Mike. Besides, Harry Potter doesn't promote Divination or anything, it basically makes fun of it! Geez... stupid people. So... *HUGS FOR EVERYONE except for you nutcases who think Harry Potter is evil*

I apologize if I haven't noted you back yet, but I'm still grounded from the computer and it's rather hard to get on here. But I will note you all as soon as possible. Thanks!

--Holly :-D

Sunday, November 17, 2002

National Harry Potter Day

My alarm went off at 8:00 A.M. I sleepily punched the snooze button and pulled my blankets closer to myself as I snuggled up to my cats, desperately wishing my dog would stop crying to get out of my room so I could go back to sleep. When Chyna went into her usual early morning barking/whining routine, I realized I wouldn't be able to get back to sleep. I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes, and went to tear my blanket off of me when I met a pair of brilliant green eyes, which belonged to none other than Mr. Harry Potter, who was printed all over my blanket. And then it hit me like the lightening bolt on Harry's forehead... IT WAS HARRY POTTER DAY!

I had to hurry up and get ready! It was already 8:04, and I had advance Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets tickets for the 11:30 A.M. showing! I hurriedly scarfed down my Multigrain Cheerios, took a shower and brushed my teeth. I let Chyna outside and saw that there was snow on the ground! I love snow, as it's a sure sign that Christmas and my birthday are coming soon! I had snow, Harry Potter tickets and Multigrain Cheerios, and so I knew it was going to be a great day.

Mom and I arrived at the theater an hour and a half early, just to make sure we got good seats. In the lobby, right under the larger than life Harry Potter posters, were two teenage girls all decked out in perfect replicas of Hogwarts (Gryffindor) uniforms. I was like, "DUDE! Where did you find all this stuff?" They informed Mom and I that they had made most of their attire from scratch, and I wished I knew how to do that sort of thing. Mom and I purchased two Harry Potter buckets of popcorn and watched as bunches of Hogwarts students pile in through the entrances. It seemed that everyone was in Gryffindor, and that they all either knew someone who was handy with a needle and thread, or went shopping in the Central Michigan University gift shop (CMU's colors as the same as Gryffindor's). I enviously chatted with these creative Potterheads, thinking how cool Sadora must look in her Slytherin-wear until it was almost time for the show, and the ticket-taking chick let us in.

We got very good seats, and Mom and I sat, listening to the folks around us chatter excitedly about the fact that we would all soon be witnessing the famous Flying Ford Anglia, the Burrow, Dobby, Knockturn Ally, Moaning Myrtle, Tom Marvolo Riddle, Colin Creevy, Aragog and the Basilisk, among other things that we had all only, so far, pictured in our heads. And then came the moment of truth. The previews ended, and we finally got to view the wonders of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.

Sure, there were things that were inaccurate about the movie... They didn't follow the entire book, and the took a lot of scenes out, but I had expected that. What I hadn't expected was how cool the Chamber of Secrets looked, nor had I expected how sweet and sad it was when Harry brushed his fingers over Hermione's frozen ones as she lay, petrified in the hospital wing and told her he needed her now more than ever. *Tear* I hadn't expected Lockhart, the Cornish Pixies and Moaning Myrtle to look exactly the way I'd pictured them. And did everyone see Harry and Hermione hugging in the Great Hall after she was released from the Hospital Wing? Heh... poor Ron, he only got a handshake.

The movie was, as Paula Abdul would say, two words: "phe" and "nominal". I'll probably have nightmares for the next 50 years after seeing that Aragog scene, but it was definitely worth it! Absolutely awesome, it was. Mom has said she's going to knit me a Gryffindor scarf for Christmas, so I'm rather happy. I must now go to bed, as it's past 3:00 A.M., so I'll leave you with this link to one of the best fan fics I have ever read. Fell So Deep by Fuyimi. Later!

--Holly :-D

Wednesday, November 13, 2002

Why Do All the A-Holes Live Here?

I was watching Cribs last night on MTV, and I tell ya what... I've never heard of any of the people I saw on there. Now, these rich folks have some very cool stuff, I admit. Home theaters, jacuzzies, closets that are bigger than my bedroom... Some of these people's backyards even resemble a waterpark or an exotic beach. Now I've got to say, as fabulous as all these things are, I think my dream house would be cooler. The first thing I'd put in my house would be an escalator, for I am lazy, and lot of my family members are caustrophobic. Then the jacuzzies would be added, as well as horses, namely shetland ponies. I think they would get along well with my dog and cats. The home theater would also be necessary. Hmm... I suddenly feel the need to play The Sims. Excuse me...

*Returns momentarily* Anyhoo, there was this weirdo on Cribs who ticked me off to no end. He had animal heads in every room of his house, along with whole dead animals. This guy talked dirtier than the cast of The Osbournes, had hair as greasy as Professor Snape's, and was actually married! And guess where he lived? Michigan! Now, I wanna know what's going on. Why do all the jerks seem to come from Michigan? We've turned out more scumbags than Slytherin, I swear! Eminem, Kid Rock, Madonna... what's the deal here? Honestly!

Huh. You ever notice how when you go through your favorites on FOD, it appears that all the names of FODers are in alphabetical order? Only... that's not alphabetical order, is it? Only on FOD does the alphabet not start with "A", but "*". That's a tad odd. *AHEM*.

So... who hasn't read my story yet? It's not finished yet, but hey. It will be. Hopefully. Ah, come on, humor me! Everyone who reads my fan fiction, Harry Potter--The Bachelor, gets a free cookie. From their cabinet. If they have any cookies. HEY! Speaking of Harry Potter, his new movie comes out FRIDAY! I'm going to see it with my mommy first. *Nods happily* You should all go see this picture here, since FOD won't let me put it on here for some reason. Harry and Hermione are hugging. *Glows in a glow-worm-like fashion*

--Holly :-D

Friday, November 8, 2002

Ah Crap, Not Again!

Well, that's just great. I'm grounded from the computer... again! On Wednesday, Dad came home from work and he somehow found out that I lied about re-taking my very first psychology test in September, so now I'm grounded from the computer again until I actually do re-take it. He started yelling at me like he always does, and I cried, and it wasn't pretty. So... I just thought I'd get on here and mention that to you folks while Dad's at work.

I went to see The Santa Clause 2 with Dad the other day, before he went crazy. I didn't think anything could be better than the first Santa Clause, but I was wrong. That movie absolutely rocked, and gets 5,000 stars and 7 thumbs up from me! Aw, there was all this sweet, mushy stuff and an adorable little girl and his little boy Charlie's such a cute little pre-teen now... The movie's just full of "aw"s and that's my favorite type o' movie. Bernard is cool, too. Can't forget that guy, with his gnarley yarn hair. I'm gonna go, see it again on Sunday with Mom and Zach. Ah yes, and while I was at the movies, I got this spiffy Harry Potter bucket! It was full of popcorn when I got it, and now I plan to take it to the beach sometime.

Man, I went to theatre practice the other day, and when I turned the corner into the hallway that leads to my class, it was pitch dark. It was like that nightmare everybody has about walking down the dark corridor, only I decided to not walk down it. I turned around and went down the alternate hallway... only to find that it was dark too! Finally, somebody from class yelled to me, "HOLLLLLLLLLLLLLY!" and I was like, "WHAAAAAAAAAT?" and they were like, "THE LIGHTS AREN'T WORKING!" and I was like, "NOOOOO CRAAAAP!" So I felt my way to the auditorium and we had theatre. Pat, our "tech man" tried to fix the lights, but he ran outta batteries in his flashlight, so I lent him my Gameboy batteries, and then there was light. During Nick's monolouge, we found that his friend had killed himself a couple weeks ago, when Nick began sobbing uncontrollably in the middle of his monolouge. It was really sad. Luckily, Leah did her monolouge right after that, and her monolouge gets the Hollarious Stamp of Approval. Heheh... she has man-slaves.

By the way, my diary's niftified now. Yup, Z-Bear helped me make it pretty yesterday. I made the collage. *Goofy, proud smile* That's Ron, Hermione and Harry; a family pic of Mom, Dad, Zach and I when I was about 3; Daria and Jane; Zach, Sarah and I; Rafe and Alison and... I think there's a pic of me now too.

--Holly :-D

Tuesday, November 5, 2002

Surveying My Inner Child

Hello, you delightful little kiddos, you! Let's see, what have I been up to? I didn't do much on Halloween because, of course, I didn't go to Larry's party party. I'll bet they really missed me at that party, too. They'll probably come into theatre practice tomorrow saying, "Oh Holly, the party really sucked since you weren't there!" and I'll be like, "What was that? I can't hear you. Maybe it's because I can only hear non-alcoholics." *Nods* Yup... that's what'll happen. Anyway, I didn't dress up for Halloween because I didn't go anywhere, and no one came over. We had about 8 trick-or-treaters, and only one of them had a costume. And 3 of them were 17.

Well, I no longer think very highly of Miss Avril Lavigne. My mom bought me an Entertainment Weekly that's all about Avril, and that sk8er girl is not nearly as cool as I thought she was. As it turns out, she's a hunter... and she's actually proud of it! And what's up with her breaking that guitar over that car in the "Sk8er Boi" video? If she didn't want the car and the guitar, I would have taken them! She didn't need to break 'em. The whipper-snapper...

The time has come to break out the Christmas CDs! Thanksgiving is coming, and so is my play and so... is... CHRISTMAS! Ooooh, excitement time for Holly! Yup. Well, guess what? I've got this awesome little book called My School Days. It's a keepsake and memories album, and it has a survey for every year of school (pre-k through 12th grade). Here's a picture of me as a pre-schooler. Don't ask me why I had those dorky bangs. But I like the dress, it's neat. I want a plaid dress...



Here's how I filled out a survey when I was in 1st grade (I was 6).
When I come home from school, I like to: Drink milk, eat popscicles and play with Jake's grandchildren. (Note from 18-year-old Holly: This must be why I'm allergic to milk now.)
At school, my favorite thing to do is...Hear stories, go outside and go to art class.
Once, at share time, I: Said that Daddy told me I could maybe have a baby kitten!
On Halloween, I dressed up as:Ariel, The Little Mermaid.
My best friend this year is: Shannon
But I also like: Ashley.
The tooth fairy came: 5 times
And I got: Toys and lots of money.
For my birthday: I had a Little Mermaid party & an Ursula pinata. I had a kids' party & a family party! Wow!
My best present all year was: Go-go Walking Pup.
My most fun trip was: To Myrtle Beach, S.C. We played in the ocean, collected shells, swam in the pool and shopped.
These are a few of my favorite things
School lunch: Chips, bologna and cheese. (Note from 18-year-old Holly: EWWW! I didn't go vegetarian until the next year!)
Sport: Dancing, biking.



TV show: Full House, Muppet Babies and Alvin and the Chipmunks.
Movie: The Little Mermaid, Annie and Heidi.
School clothes Little Mermaid shirt.
Holiday Christmas.
Doll (truck): The Little Mermaid.
Restaurant: Chuck E. Cheese.
Game Super Mario Bros. III

Well, it was fun to have a chat with my inner child. Now, I must go, as it's time to vote. Ah yes, and I'm working on un-Halloweening my diary, so don't think I slept through Halloween and don't know it's over or anything. *Shifts eyes nervously* Ta!

Holly :-D